Had an interesting (3 way) conversation today with my father and a mutual friend of ours. My dad was proudly extolling upon my virtues (which I hate him doing... like geez dad, knock it off will ya??) and said that he would never "disown me, his beloved son"... I told him (and our friend) that he needs to be reminded of the "threat of disowning me, should he ever hear that I've kissed a black girl".... (which I've done... happily and pleasantly btw-- she was a good kisser :fanboy: ), my dad went on the tangent of saying that he had a reason for doing that...
prevent confusion between the offspring of such a union
different birds don't mate together
it would cause "problems" later on (dunno what ... it wasn't elaborated at that moment)
that horses don't mate with cows... to which I asked my dad... would a white horse mate with a black horse?? he laughed and said well... that's different they're the same "race" (I'm guessing he
meant species) ... I then asked him... well are black people human?? Am I human?? the subject got tactfully changed all of the sudden...
I've known this about my father for years... but consider him I guess... a good natured racist, meaning that oh he likes black people and other races just doesn't agree with the idea of mixing them up.
But I agree with the definition that being racist is thinking any others are inferior to your own or beneath your own or not worth associating with or not trustworthy simply on the basis of their skin-color and sometimes heritage.
I've a friend whom I've spoke of before who married a (lovely) black woman he met during his mission for the LDS church. They've 3 beautiful children and are very happy together after 7 years of marriage (so far). I never saw a problem with it.
I used to use the "n" word during my youth as both a casual reference to the person or as a slur, but learned over time that the color of the man's skin didn't necessarily meant he was going to be good/bad for me. I learned as Dr. King said, a person should be judged on "the content of their character..." I outgrew my racist thinking which I realized (and was reminded of today) came from my father who got it from his oldest brother who got it from their father who got it from his father and that went back all the way to whomever came over on the boat and bought slaves to *ahem* help out around the farm.
Racism in my opinion is a point of view and it's as varied as the person holding them. True, they may be shared but it's still how they choose to look at it. It's also a inscribed trait taught by parents of children who grow up to be racist.
Racism is nothing more than a form of hatred and it's perfectly illustrated (I think so anyway) in the movie "American History X "
It's something we all can and should do without. The contribution of non-whites in this country and the rest of the world have been startling significant.
Hawkeye: "...you ever hear of Dr. Charles Drew soldier? He invented the process of seperating blood cells"
Trapper: "plasma"
Hawkeye: "he died as a result of a car accident"
Trapper: "he bled to death"
Hawkeye: "the hospital wouldn't take him"
Trapper: "it was for whites only".
~episode of M*A*S*H dealing with a wounded soldier worried about getting the wrong "colored" blood.